Why a Planner Will Not be Your Fix for Productivity

Today let’s talk about something I love to talk about – planners. If you’ve been following Ginger & Co. for a while, you know I’m super in love with my Day Designer. I use it every day as a way to plan out my day, and in conjunction with Trello, I plan my week. But today, let’s talk about using a planner – because a planner will not be your fix all for productivity.

Back in high school, I loved going through the office aisles in Target (I still do, actually). I loved buying those $15 planners all the time, and as soon as I got home, they’d sit there and collect dust.

But I still loved the idea of a planner and having everything written down.

Which is why I bought an Erin Condren planner in college. I loved it, but I kind of hated it, too. I realized I needed more space to write everything down – which is how I ended up with the Day Designer. But it took me a long time to find a system that works for me, but I want to talk about what happens when you buy that planner.

1. You Have to Use It.

Your planner will be there for you, but if you aren’t using it, you sure aren’t going to be productive in a way that your planner can help you with. I love my Day Designer because there’s plenty of space for my over-ambitious plans for each day. The days that I may forget it at home or don’t look at it, I’m for sure less productive. But that’s because I’ve almost trained myself to use that planner as a reference.

2. You Still Have to Discipline Yourself to be Productive

While there’s something so satisfying about crossing something off on my to-do list, the planner didn’t do that. I did that task. So even if you use your planner to write down all your tasks, you still have to actually do all these tasks. Today as I’m writing this post, I have a pretty big list of things I need to accomplish and I’m not sure if I’m gonna get all of them done. I won’t get everything done because I’m lacking any motivation and discipline today. That’s a totally different conversation for another day.

3. You have to be Consistent

Consistency is a word I’ve tried to embrace this year, but let’s get real. Whether you use a planner or not, you need to be consistent about how you tackle your tasks. Whether you do use a planner, or maybe a to-do list app, you need to be consistent if you want to be productive. A planner isn’t going to be the magical cure-all to fix that. But if you use it correctly, it will help you.

As I said before, you have to make that commitment. If you prefer to use your phone to put appointments and tasks in – use that. Everyone has a different way of staying organized, but you’ll be more productive if you find your special way.

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Established in 2014, ginger and co. has become a place for women in their twenties to find advice on an array of topics, including the publishing world, managing your career, surviving college, the weird universe of online dating, and everything in between.